The 26-year-old Mexican journalist who had been seeking political asylum in El Paso has returned to his country after his request for release under parole was denied for a second time by U.S. authorities.

Martin Mendez Pineda, from Acapulco in the state of Guerrero, spent more than three months at the El Paso Processing Center. On Feb. 5, he sought refuge to escape repeated death threats in his hometown.

Mendez Pineda withdrew his request May 16 and returned to Mexico, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.

“I felt I had to return after they denied my request for release under parole for the second time,” Mendez Pineda told Reporters Without Borders. “When I got their response, I realized I no longer had any hope of getting out. As I couldn’t stand another year in this situation, I took the decision to return, despite the danger that entails, a danger they didn’t really take into account.”

He had reported on the alleged abuse of power and intimidation tactics of Mexican federal police who had arrested a person involved in a minor collision in February 2016. A few weeks later, he said, armed men beat him and threatened to kill him outside of his home. He quit his job and reported the attack to Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission.

In a statement, ICE officials said Mendez Pineda applied for admission into the United States without a valid visa.

"He was then transferred to ICE custody where he remained until May 16, after a federal immigration judge granted his request to withdraw his application for admission into the United States," ICE said.

Immigration attorney Carlos Spector, who represented Mendez Pineda in El Paso, was not available for comment Thursday, but he told Reporters Without Borders that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had again denied his client’s request for parole because he did not have sufficient ties to the community.

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Volunteers from the humanitarian group No More Death put water out for migrants while they search for the body of a missing migrant on June 23, 2017, at the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in the western desert of Arizona.
Nick Oza/The Republic

Volunteers from the humanitarian group No More Death put water out for migrants while searching for the body of a missing migrant on June 23, 2017, at the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in the western desert of Arizona.
Nick Oza/The Republic

Migrant shoes left behind in the desert. During the Border Safety Initiative event on April 20, 2017, Border Patrol agents take members of the media out into the desert to raise public awareness for the dangers migrants face crossing the desert.
Nick Oza/The Republic

During the Border Safety Initiative event on April 20, 2017, Border Patrol agents take members of the media out into the desert to raise public awareness for the dangers migrants face crossing the desert.
Nick Oza/The Republic

During the Border Safety Initiative event on April 20, 2017, Border Patrol agents take members of the media out into the desert to raise public awareness for the dangers migrants face crossing the desert.
Nick Oza/The Republic

During the Border Safety Initiative event on April 20, 2017, Border Patrol agents take members of the media out into the desert to raise public awareness for the dangers migrants face crossing the desert.
Nick Oza/The Republic

During the Border Safety Initiative event on April 20, 2017, Border Patrol agents take members of the media out into the desert to raise public awareness for the dangers migrants face crossing the desert.
Nick Oza/The Republic

Dylan Corbett, executive director of the Hope Border Institute and a member of the Borderland Immigration Center, said the denial of Mendez's parole speaks to a broader issue: the implementation of polices under President Donald Trump's administration in which asylum seekers are criminalized and placed into detention for a long period.

"When you’re talking about sealing the border, most people think of the wall, but it applies to policies, too, which make it more difficult for asylum seekers to come to this country," he said. "Asylum seekers are being discouraged and dissuaded, and the system is really meant to break their spirit."

Corbett said that in a letter Mendez Pineda wrote, which was published in early May, the journalist described mistreatment while being detained. Corbett said Mendez also was harassed by ICE authorities after the letter's publication.

ICE officials did not respond to a request for comment on the allegations.

Mexican journalist Martin Mendez Pineda(Photo: Courtesy)

"They denied him adequate medical care, they denied him water, they began to harass him after the publication of the letter, they broke his spirit and the threats that he faces are real," Corbett said.

"For him to return to a situation where his life is literally in danger, it speaks to the fact that we have a broken immigration system and a system built to break people's spirit. And that's not who we are as Americans," he added.

Corbett said Mendez Pineda withdrew his case the same week that journalist Javier Valdez was killed in Mexico’s northwest state of Sinaloa, and Sonia Cordoba, the assistant director of a newspaper in Jalisco, was attacked by hit men. Cordoba's son was killed in the attack.

Valdez is the sixth journalist killed in Mexico in 2017. Last year, 11 Mexican journalists were killed.